Governess

Martha Louise Dreyer, a German immigrant who worked as a Baltimore governess before her marriage, died in her sleep Dec. 10 at Keswick Multi-Care Center. She was 100 and had lived in Rodgers Forge for many years. She was born Martha Louise Marie Heine in Niemburg, Germany, and moved to New York City in 1923. She was a governess in Flatbush for several years before moving to Baltimore in 1926, when she went to work as a governess for the Millard Diehl family of Roland Park. In 1929, she married William H. Dreyer, also a German immigrant, who was building superintendent for Sun Life Insurance Co. He died in 1982.

The Bush administration managed to reach out of the shadows with the recent Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited spending by corporations on election campaigns. The assumption by five justices (including two Bush appointees) who pushed this decision through is that corporations are entitled to free speech just as individual citizens are. This issue was not on the public radar prior to the ruling and represents the kind of "activism" that President Bush railed against. The belief that corporations had previously been denied free speech is flawed.

"The Governess" is a very pretty movie. And Minnie Driver is very good in it. Set in 19th-century Britain, it has a fascinating subtext involving the invention of photography.But with all this going for it, "The Governess" is still nothing more than a stilted costume drama, a classy bodice-heaver listing under the weight of its good taste and even better intentions. Part "Jane Eyre," part "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "The Governess" isn't dramatic or original enough to live up to those progenitors or to be of compelling interest.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's State of the State address provided me with an interesting insight into the view of government in Maryland ("O'Malley's speech sets a hopeful tone," Feb. 3). There were several issues of concern in this speech, but the biggest was in the conclusion in which Marvelous Martin said that government is the answer to the question of how to "create greater freedom," among other things. Government does not create freedoms. The Declaration of Independence says that the citizens of the United States are "endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights."

Spirited show The lowdown -- Join a small cast of student soloists and an orchestra of 13 when they perform Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw -- A Ghost Story as part of the Peabody Opera Theatre. The story follows a young governess when she is hired to look after two orphaned children at an isolated country home. As things begin to go horribly wrong, the governess begins to see spirits; but are the spirits real or are they simply figments of her imagination? Miss If you go -- Performances are at 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Miriam A. Friedberg Hall, 17 E. Mount Vernon Place.

While Enid Bagnold's "The Chalk Garden" is, on one level, about the challenge of raising a precocious and troubled teen-ager, on a deeper level it is about the part of a plant that lies hidden under ground -- the roots.The 1955 script -- receiving an able production under Suzanne Pratt's direction at Theatre Hopkins -- is itself an example of something that turns out to be different from what appears on the surface. From the beautifully detailed conservatory set to the cultured tones of the actors portraying the cast of upper-class characters and their servants, everything about the show suggests a drawing room comedy.

"So, my dear, we are alone." Under most circumstances, those words might not raise a shudder, but when uttered by a troubled boy to his governess in Benjamin Britten's masterful opera The Turn of the Screw, the effect can be awfully chilling. So it was Monday night in a remarkable production presented at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater by famed conductor Lorin Maazel's Chateauville Foundation. Remarkable in that Maazel, music director of the New York Philharmonic and one of the world's most-gifted conductors, led the performance.

Part of the pleasure of Henry James' ghostly mystery novel The Turn of the Screw is that the mystery persists after you close the book. Do the evil spirits who haunt the tale exist or are they merely imagined? In the notes to his 1996 stage adaptation, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher advocates giving audiences "something to argue about on the way home," instead of favoring one interpretation. Yet the script itself edges toward the imaginary-ghost theory. And, director Alex Willis' Fell's Point Corner Theatre production tips the balance even more.

BENJAMIN BRITTEN'S "The Turn of the Screw" is a tight two-act drama, a musical lesson in variations on a simple theme, a show for solo musical instruments, an economy of vocal craftsmanship and a limited action opera where every word counts.But it's also an ugly story that can scratch at you like chalk on a blackboard. It has snippets of creepy melodies, sinister ghosts, a gloomy tower, weird people, hints of sexual misdeeds, a death, some guilt, dark imaginations and an ill-defined evil that seems to settle even in the seats.

In the latest reflection of its continuing expansion, Everyman Theatre will add a seventh performance each week to its 2007-2008 season. The forthcoming season is also newsworthy in other respects: It will include the theater's first Shakespeare production as well as the Baltimore premiere of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. With audiences averaging 90 percent capacity and two seasons yet to go before Everyman moves from 1727 N. Charles St. to new quarters in the west side's Town Theatre, the additional performance - at 7 p.m. Sunday - is a way to accommodate theatergoers in the interim.

Spirited show The lowdown -- Join a small cast of student soloists and an orchestra of 13 when they perform Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw -- A Ghost Story as part of the Peabody Opera Theatre. The story follows a young governess when she is hired to look after two orphaned children at an isolated country home. As things begin to go horribly wrong, the governess begins to see spirits; but are the spirits real or are they simply figments of her imagination? Miss If you go -- Performances are at 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Miriam A. Friedberg Hall, 17 E. Mount Vernon Place.

In the latest reflection of its continuing expansion, Everyman Theatre will add a seventh performance each week to its 2007-2008 season. The forthcoming season is also newsworthy in other respects: It will include the theater's first Shakespeare production as well as the Baltimore premiere of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. With audiences averaging 90 percent capacity and two seasons yet to go before Everyman moves from 1727 N. Charles St. to new quarters in the west side's Town Theatre, the additional performance - at 7 p.m. Sunday - is a way to accommodate theatergoers in the interim.

"So, my dear, we are alone." Under most circumstances, those words might not raise a shudder, but when uttered by a troubled boy to his governess in Benjamin Britten's masterful opera The Turn of the Screw, the effect can be awfully chilling. So it was Monday night in a remarkable production presented at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater by famed conductor Lorin Maazel's Chateauville Foundation. Remarkable in that Maazel, music director of the New York Philharmonic and one of the world's most-gifted conductors, led the performance.

On January 24, 2006, BEATRICE "Jerry" G. GOVER; loving wife of the late Harry S. Gover; mother of Sharon Howard, Donna Pitcher, Lisa Swift, Richard Gover and Timothy Gover; sister of Dorothy Cook, Genevieve Mullinix and Ralph Wine; grandmother of Julie, Tony and Timothy. Family will receive friends at the STERLING-ASHTON-SCHWAB-WITZKE FUNERAL HOME OF CATONSVILLE, INC., 1630 Edmondson Avenue (1 Mile West of Beltway Exit 14) on Friday from 4 to 8 P.M., where services will be held on Saturday at 10 A.M. Interment Good Shepherd Cemetery.

In transforming The Turn of the Screw into an opera, Benjamin Britten does not provide answers to the questions posed in the chilling novel of that name by Henry James. Are the ghosts real, or merely imagined by the repressed governess who arrives at a country home to care for two orphaned children? What exactly happened between the former governess, the valet and the children before both adults died? Britten only adds to the uncertainty, and the unease. His remarkably concise opera puts us deep inside this gothic tale of innocence threatened, defiled and lost, but we can never know for sure what dark secrets are at the heart of the plot.

In transforming The Turn of the Screw into an opera, Benjamin Britten does not provide answers to the questions posed in the chilling novel of that name by Henry James. Are the ghosts real, or merely imagined by the repressed governess who arrives at a country home to care for two orphaned children? What exactly happened between the former governess, the valet and the children before both adults died? Britten only adds to the uncertainty, and the unease. His remarkably concise opera puts us deep inside this gothic tale of innocence threatened, defiled and lost, but we can never know for sure what dark secrets are at the heart of the plot.

They are often underpaid and overworked. They get saddled with menial chores. Sometimes, they are secretly videotaped.But maybe worst of all, they are misunderstood.America's nannies say they deserve a little more respect -- as teachers, not baby sitters, child-care professionals, not maids."When a nanny walks in the door, parents think they've just hired a substitute mom," says Sheilagh Roth, executive director of the English Nanny and Governess School in Chagrin Falls, Ohio."They are expected to shovel the sidewalk when it snows, cook the meals and clean the house.

Part of the pleasure of Henry James' ghostly mystery novel The Turn of the Screw is that the mystery persists after you close the book. Do the evil spirits who haunt the tale exist or are they merely imagined? In the notes to his 1996 stage adaptation, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher advocates giving audiences "something to argue about on the way home," instead of favoring one interpretation. Yet the script itself edges toward the imaginary-ghost theory. And, director Alex Willis' Fell's Point Corner Theatre production tips the balance even more.